Gasper

Given the time gap between OB and SA 4, it is likely we will see many new fabrial weapons in the next book.

4 hours ago, Solant said:

 Whoa.... could it be that the pain/sorrow given is or is somehow converted into voidlight?

Part of me wonders if the disgraced Truthwatchers are the predecessors for what eventually became the stormwardens.

That makes a lot of sense actually. If most of them where as weird as Renarian, then it would make sense that they channeled their grief into something that came close to replicating their old abilities.

One of my friends gave me an Oathstone. Merry Christmas to all.

Merry Christmas to all of you. 

I do not think that F-Gold is actually health/healing. There is  WoB on this somewhere. Also, it is tied to your spiritweb but I think it is the connection between your physical self and your spiritual self. I think health in the cosmere in general is that connection as well. Imagine this connection as a pipe. When you store "health" in a gold mind, the flow through that pipe decreases. When you tape a gold mind, the flow increases. When you breath in Stormlight, that flow increases, which is why you can regrow limbs and such. Now the shape of that "pipe" is what determines how much is healed and if the healing works and is regulated by Identity. Other magic systems that heal such as Aon Dor do something similar but I do not know the mechanics of it.

9 hours ago, Quantus said:

Nalthis is definitely going to Elf-on-the-Shelf their kids...

Elf on the shelf is creepy enough as it is, I do not want it turning into a Chucky sort of scenario.

Its Christmas season in the Cosmere, even though they do not have Christmas.

Scadrial: Parents tell their children that if they are good, the Survivor and his crew will leave baywraps, small amounts of coins, or little vials of metals at the fire place or foot of the bed at the winter solstice. Death will visit if the children are bad and steal them away if they are bad. Harmony and the Kandra tell the Survivor and Death which children have been bad or good that year and are most often disguised as either a wolfhound or a Terris delivery man. 

Nathlis: Warbreaker the peaceful brings a huge tree into town and hands out food to those who are hungry, but beware the sword on his back, for he uses it to smite the rich who try and cheat the poor.

Sel: The Elantrians hold a light festival in which the whole city modified with an Aon that turns it red and green for a week. It is literally lit up like a Christmas tree.

Roshar: In Alethikar, Kelek will randomly build toys for children, Jezrien can be seen slaying Voidbringers at the darkest hour of the night, and Taln can be seen hauling the weapons of his enemies to distribute to his soldiers. In Azar, the child who writes the best essay and fills out his or her forms correctly gets to pick out a gift from a hat. in Urithiru, Shallan and the ardents soulcast a huge vat of mulled purple wine, Kaladin and Bridge Four dress up as an Iri myth of a man in a red and blue suit who has a cart pulled by Axehounds who distributes gifts to all the children. Adolin and Renarian are the helpers of Santnas claus. Dalinar locks himself in his office because he thinks the lights are a waste of Stormlight and has a war to plan. Lift attempts to eat all the food and Navani makes some Fabrials that give off a happy feeling. Syl dresses up with a little flopply hat that has bells. Pattern looks like a snowflake. The Stormfather does not care as long as Dalinar does not start singing.

6 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I think he/she means that the Singers on Odiums side aren’t really bad people, and are very justified in fighting humanity. That means that Odiums side isn’t completely bad, even though Odium himself is.

Meanwhile, Team Dalinar have Jasnah, who is willing to pull off a genocide to save humanity from its former slaves, Hoid who is willing to let Roshar burn to get what he wants, a whole bunch of racists and slavers, and Szeth. You have a whole bunch of moral issues to unpack there as well. 

I concur, most of the people on both sides are not bad, they are just following orders and hoping to survive TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It). That is why Kaladin is having such a hard time fighting, he sees that most of the people fighting are not evil. There are genuinely good and evil people on Roshar. Dalinar is currently a good person as are Bridge Four. The Fused and Odium are evil, so much so that they do not care about their forces beyond supplying them with an endless wave of helpless meat puppets. 

"The protection of the many is more important than the protection of the few." 

6 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

the scene where Lopen becomes a Radiant

The thing is, I know people like Lopen, who have a very similar personality. Not to rain on your parade or anything, but from my experience, Lopen's comedy shtick is an actual thing.

On 12/13/2018 at 11:54 PM, Winds Alight said:

Kaladin's overall arc is far from over, I agree on that.
But his OB arc is a complete arc, just not the one most of us would have wanted for him. I mean. In WoK and WoR he got to be the one to save the day, and in WoR, which wasn't technically supposed to be his book, he pretty much stole the show from Shallan. I mean, flying, glowing and fighting the man who's been the nightmare of world leaders for years is kiiiinda more impressive than sticking a sword into a keyhole.
And even though he is my favorite character EVER and I don't want anything bad to ever happen to him again, I think OB was necessary. It's easy to think of Kaladin as the main character, where he's actually one of several. So it's alright he wasn't the one to save everyone's butt again. Besides, the fact that it was the other way round - everyone got to save his butt at least once - is something beautiful. He needed that as well.

Shallan has grown on me as a character since rereading WoR, but I still want to see her demise used to make Adolin into an Edgedancer (preferably sooner rather than later). I also think that Kaladin will swear his 4th Oath at the same time. She is not that great of a character and a great conclusion to either the middle or end of the 4th book or the beginning of the 5th book would be Shallan being obliterated by an Unmade and making Adolin and Kaladin progress as characters.

On 8/23/2018 at 11:21 PM, Toaster Retribution said:

I would argue that Kaladins OB arc is a complete arc. He finally accepts that he can’t always be a hero. He accepts that everyone can’t be saved. These are huge steps for his character. 

His arc is not complete. Sure, his OB arc was, but his overall arc from healer to warrior to ruler/leader is not complete. I think at minimum it will end in STA5 but not before then. I think he will struggle with the 4th Oath for a while. I think it has to do with his attachments and letting go of those so that he can lead on a bigger scale. I think that will take him a while, one or one and a half books at least. Also, I expect him to survive into the second half of the series.

46 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

We have no indication nicrosil is capable of something like that.

Well, we are not sure exactly what nicrosil can do. Sure, it can store investure and an ability, and we have a few WoBs describing that. But actually seeing what it can truly do has not come up yet. I highly doubt that its true purpose is to be used as a battery for the other abilities.

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

That would be an entirely different power set than anything that's even been implied for the Metallic Arts. 

Yes and no. It would unlike anything in the physical realm, but it would work similar to how allomancy pulls investure from the spiritual realm through the metal being burned and into the physical realm effect. This works similarly, only the nicrosil metal mind acts as a focus of sorts and the user pulls the investure out into a blade or plate form.

1 hour ago, ZenBossanova said:

1, 2 & 4 can be accomplished with some combination of Scadrian and Nalthian magics. Summoning (3) is the tricky one. While I agree that a Nicrosil-mind is the most promising idea I have heard yet, the problem is that a sword starts off as a physical object, and the physical object is going to hard to store. 

The investure is part of the spiritweb, it just requires a nicrosil compounder to bring it out and force it into a usable shape instead of using it to power allomancy or feruchemy. The investure would become a shardblade and appear in a form like a sprenblade.

11 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

Just in regards to Scadrial:

1. We definitely could see a Scadrian sword that granted access to the metalic arts. Basically just the Bands of Mourning in sword form.

2. This depends. I've already stated that I don't think there's a way in the metalic arts to cut any material, but we certainly could have a spike sword that killed in a single blow by severing the spirit.

3. Unlikely.

4. Yes

I agree, I doubt that Scadrian Blades would have the cutting ability of a Rosharian blade. Rosharian blades were designed to kill things like Thunderclasts and heavily armored foes, A scadrian blade would most likely be a counter to such blades while giving the user an ability or set of abilities from allomancy or feruchemy. I still think that summoning and dismissing is possible through creative use of nicrosil. Intelligence, likely.

@Wit4EVRJust to let you know, check the date on a thread before commenting. Try not to necro a thread, its just an etiquette thing, not that I am not guilty of it too. 

28 minutes ago, Wit4EVR said:

But wouldn't Shallan forgiving Kaladin for killing Helaren be a mile-stone that could possibly deepen their relationship? 

Also, this has been resolved in Oathbringer. Just to let you know. Welcome to the Shard.

15 hours ago, ZenBossanova said:

Of course, when we were developing the atomic bomb, scientists considered the possibility that the atmosphere would catch on fire, and concluded that it probably would not happen. Time bubbles, angry or otherwise, sounds down right responsible in comparison. 

Of course, just because you can grant sentience, doesn't mean you will get a useful personality. The sword might end up being a pacifist.

I am not sure that I want a angry time bubble with Wayne's personality running around. 

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Iron and Steel allomancy are not using some weird form of magnetism or gravitation. As described in BoM when Wax and Marasi are holding the bands, humans and metals are the same thing. Given that they can both pull investure from the spiritual realm, I think that is what it means. It also means that pushes and pulls are the allomancer manipulating their inherent spiritual connection to the metal. Which might also explain why the line emit from a point higher than the center of gravity. The investure pulled through the focus forms a bridge between Allomancer and Metal, that bridge can then be manipulated to do things. This works with aluminum because aluminum is an investure sink, so the allomancer would just be pouring investure into it without forming the bridge. And a metalmind or hemalurgic spike resists because it is invested and there for the allomancer has a harder time forming and manipulating the bridge between themselves and the invested metal.

3 minutes ago, Ookla the Mind Sculptor said:

I don't think they have to be in the exact center, but I'm not sure.

I am almost certain they have to be inside it though, otherwise in AoL they could have put a bubble just around miles instead of needing to be in it too.

That may be one of the various applications that require a mechanical usage of Allomancy.

Kelsier is not a shard, he is an agent of Harmony and sort of a sliver. Sorry to burst your bubble.

The titles of the books so far have corresponded with titles of books in-universe. The Series title, Stormlight Archive, is similar and actually tells us about the series as a whole. The Stormlight Archive, otherwise known as the gem library, is a massive information storage device and the books(gems) contained with in are the story of Roshar. The Archive is the back up for Human/Rosharian society. What ever is happening next, most likely at the end of the first five book cycle, will be cause for the archive to be used in some way that goes beyond what we have seen so far. It is possible that the Archive is a way/holds instruction for Dalinar's Radiants to get off world if things go down hill in the fight against Odium. It is noted in the books that Urithiru has alien architecture. It is not from an another planet, but it is the societal escape pod that the humans or the Heralds build in case they lost the war against the Singers. I think the archive originated as a instruction manual for the operation of the city. The reason that the walls look like they have gemstones is that they do. The gemstones in the walls act as a way for the city to not fall apart when it lifts off. It is a structural integrity/life support/defense system/computer system that spreads through out the whole of Urithiru. We know that some of the Heralds were not born on Roshar, I am willing to bet Kelek is the one who built it, possibly before he became a herald. I am also willing to bet that it is based on the design of the floating cities of Ashyn. Given that the city is possibly a ship it would explain why the Oathgates are all centered at Urithiru. The Oathgates are not for trade, they are to allow the human population to escape when Odium decides to commit genocide against the humans and end the fight once and for all. That is why they can operate with only one shardholder and why they have to be unlocked at each of the gates instead of from Urithiru. Additionally, that explains why they are so large and also why the control room can transport on its own. I am willing to bet that the Oathpact and whatever else that holds Odium back was in response to Odium preparing to wipe out humans once and for all. Which is why the Heralds made the pact with Honor and Urithiru was not used. Just like the origin of shardblades was lost, so was the origin and true purpose of Urithiru. The Radiants started using it as a base because it was isolated and the life support systems functioned enough so as to allow humans to live there. Even the old Radiants did not know exactly what they where living in. 

When the Alethi find the tunnel leading out of the basement and into the surrounding mountains, that is not an escape route, that is an exhaust port for what ever engine allows the city to fly. The gem column is probably a part of the engine/reactor that lifts/sustains the city. The unmade was somehow feeding off of that, which is why it was in the basement attached to the gem pillar. I think the Sibling might be some sort of Spren based AI, which is why it is crucial for the functioning of the city. The pillar, the lifts, and the gemstones in the walls remind me of Atlantis from Stargate: Atlantis. Down to the life support that functions without the city being active. 

I also think that Ash may be responsible for all of the current problems on Roshar. That story that Hoid tells Shallan about the girl who climbed the wall is about Ash leaving the ship/base of the humans when they landed and been given Shinovar. The light that came in was Stormlight, which might have allowed the humans to regain control of their Surgebinding like powers and is why the Singers went to war with the humans. The Singers did not want to see their world destroyed, so they decided to wipe out the humans, that hatred of the humans is what led Odium to taking their side and creating the Fused. The war must have destroyed the human ship, which is why Kelek built Urithiru as a way for the humans to escape. It is also why the Cryptics, which are tied to constants of the universe, bonded the Lightweavers and require them to say Truths instead of Ideals. It is because the Truths are meant to restore what was lost instead of build something new like the rest of the Radiant orders. The Lightweavers are also the key to running Urithiru because their truths restore, which is why Shallan was able to remove the Midnight Mother from the gem column because she is tied to the city by virtue of her order that reflects Ash the Herald.

I know this sounds very far fetched, but think about all the information we have so far. The archive is not just an archive, it is an investure powered computer. That is what ties all of this together.

On 11/30/2018 at 1:29 PM, Ookla the Mind Sculptor said:

I think your best bet for a Scadrian Shardblade would be to just pump a metalmind full of so much investiture that it eventually gained sentience, but since even the bands weren't that invested I don't know if its plausible with Scadrial being such a low-investiture planet.

I disagree with Scadrial being a low investure planet, I think there is less ambient investure because the shard(s) that build the planet poured most of their accessible investure into the planet and its people. Remember, Ruin and Preservation created Scadrial and the humans on that world from scratch, which is why Ruin could change the writing on paper and in metal minds, but Odium and Honor can't change the information in the Way of Kings or in the gem archive. 

22 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

I don't know if you could create full sharblade equivalents with the metallic arts, for example I don't know if they have any way to cut through any material (with exceptions) like Nightblood or actual sharblades. But, if you just want a weapon that can kill in a single hit by severing the soul, then I propose hemalurgic swords. Which, honestly, might just be a sword that you declare, "This is a spike." Granted, it might only work once. In which case, hear me out here, how about hemalurgic shard-bullets?

That is an awesome Idea, a shard weapon that has the same effect of a shardblade, only you can take out a target from a mile away.

Living Shardplate can be summoned and dismissed at will, as evidenced by the Windrunner in Dalinar's visions.